All Saints star Melanie Blatt has joked she’ll forever have beef with the Spice Girls after fans claimed she is ‘bitter’ over their rival band’s success.
The 50-year-old singer appeared on Sunday Brunch with hosts Simon Rimmer and Tim Lovejoy where they discussed the BBC‘s new documentary Girlbands Forever.
In the recent documentary, Melanie expressed frustration that All Saints had worked hard for years, only for the ‘manufactured’ Spice Girls to ‘blow up so quickly’.
All Saints was made up of Melanie alongside Shaznay Lewis, Nicole Appleton and Natalie Appleton.
Discussing the rivalry between the two former bands, Melanie touched on how fans claimed she ‘comes across bitter’.
She shared: ‘A lot of them are saying “you come across as bitter,”‘ before pausing and announcing: ‘I am.’
All Saints star Melanie Blatt has joked she’ll forever have beef with the Spice Girls after fans claimed she is ‘bitter’ over their rival band’s success (pictured in 2023)
In the recent documentary, Melanie expressed frustration that All Saints had worked hard for years, only for the ‘manufactured’ Spice Girls to ‘blow up so quickly’ (L-R Emma Bunton, Mel C, Victoria Beckham, Geri Horner and Mel B in 1996)
Melanie and the hosts began laughing as she continued: ‘I am bitter. I’m bitter and I’m jealous.’
The former pop star then went on to share how she has a really close friendship with Emma Bunton, despite the fact they were in competing girlbands.
She continued: ‘I love Emma, she’s a good mate.’
Melanie continued: ‘Mel C I know a little bit and she’s amazing. It was more the concept of having music and selling crisps and lollipops and stuff like that that I had a problem with.’
‘We worked so hard, even being called a girlband it felt like a dirty word to us because we just wanted to be a band. We didn’t want to have to be put into this box or that box.’
She concluded: ‘I did have a major problem. I’ll have beef until I die with them. I will.’
Talking about the Spice Girls’ success, she says: ‘I genuinely had a problem with them, all the years of work we’d put in and then they just came out and blew up so quickly.
‘And were obviously manufactured. The band was made for a purpose.’
All Saints were made up of Melanie alongside Shaznay Lewis, Nicole Appleton and Natalie Appleton (pictured in 1999)
Emma Bunton pictured with Melanie back in 2003, alongside Justin Timberlake and Shaznay Lewis
All Saints were together until 2001 and reunited between 2001 and 2006. Then again between 2008 and 2022.
Some of their best songs include Never Ever, Black Coffee, Under The Bridge, All Hooked Up and Bootie Call.
Meanwhile, Spice Girls are arguably one of the most popular and well-known girl groups of all time.
The band, made up of Victoria Beckham, Geri Halliwell, Mel B, Emma Bunton and Mel C, was created in 1994 by Chris Herbert – and are known for tunes such as Wannabe, Spice Up Your Life, Viva Forever and 2 Become 1.
Elsewhere in the documentary, a retro clip of Noel Gallagher giving his opinion the band is played out.
The singer, now 58, is best known for being lead guitarist of rock band Oasis – alongside his brother Liam, 53.
He says: ‘There is a big they’re a big money corporate machine, aren’t they?
‘Advertising crisps and cans of coke, and all that nonsense.
‘They’ve got a single out now that you can only buy if you buy 20 cans of Pepsi.
‘But good luck to them, they’re young girls or are they are as young as they say, that’s what I want to know.
‘I’ll tell you this right, if Geri spice is 24 then she’s going to look f**ing rough when she’s 30.’
Girlbands Forever airs on BBC Two and is available to stream on iPlayer.